Governing Arms: The Southern African Experience

Governing Arms: The Southern Arican experience

edited by Virginia Gamba
May 2000

For the past four years, the Arms Management Programme (AMP) has been involved in running a series of projects on small arms, with a specific focus on the dynamics in the Southern African region. The book Governing Arms: The Southern African experience is a compilation of significant AMP publications published over the past four years, which looks critically at prevention, management and resolution of small arms proliferation. The objective of this contribution is to present a working model for a short, medium and long-term process that leads to acceptable co-operation, rather than unacceptable consensus, in the control and reduction of small arms proliferation. As presented in the section 1, Gamba outlines the strategic assumptions underlying the model, and outlines its three interdependent segments, namely:

Preventing of future floes

Managing existing small arms flows and associated problems

Resolution of small arms proliferation in the region

The book is structured in support of the model, as it was tested and refined over a period of four years. The governments of Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden funded this special project.

The book is divided into four sections, as follows:

Introduction and Model:

Securing the scourge of Small Arms proliferation in Southern Africa by Virginia Gamba.

The Southern African small arms control experience as a working model for the reduction of small arms proliferation by Virginia Gamba

Prevention:

The price of war and peace: A critical assessment of the disarmament component of the United Nations operations in Southern Africa by Jakkie Potgieter

Illegal firearms in circulation in South Africa by Ettienne Hennop

Management:

Illegal firearms in South Africa: Proliferation and problems of control by Clare Hannsmann and Ettienne Hennop

Tackling the proliferation of small arms in Southern Africa by Andrew Mclean

Resolution:

Community-based responses to the proliferation of firearms by Clare Hansmann

The history and prospects of voluntary weapons collection programmes by Sarah Meek

The evolution of Operations Rachel by Martinho Chachiua

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For the past four years, the Arms Management Programme (AMP) has been involved in running a series of projects on small arms, with a specific focus on the dynamics in the Southern African region. The book Governing Arms: The Southern African experience is a compilation of significant AMP publications published over the past four years, which looks critically at prevention, management and resolution of small arms proliferation. The objective of this contribution is to present a working model for a short, medium and long-term process that leads to acceptable co-operation, rather than unacceptable consensus, in the control and reduction of small arms proliferation. As presented in the section 1, Gamba outlines the strategic assumptions underlying the model, and outlines its three interdependent segments, namely: